Well the reprieve for Fallen Earth has expired. My current subscription is up tomorrow and I’ve set it not to renew. I’ve played maybe an hour in the last month. It is a good game and pretty fun, but the setting just hasn’t drawn me in. I don’t mean the game isn’t immersive, because it definitely is. Maybe it would be more correct to say that the setting didn’t engage my imagination.

When I play LoTRO or Champions, I’m not just grinding quests or mobs. I have an inner dialog going on where I think about why my character is doing what he’s doing and what he thinks of the events he’s experiencing. I get very attached to my MMO characters and most of them have a background story. Often the story develops while I’m playing and I don’t always write them down, but any character that I play for a while develops some kind of background.

Even with my general lack of interest, I might have kept the subscription active for another month or two in the hopes that something would click for me. Unfortunately, my MMO schedule is going to get more crowded over the next six months, not less. Star Trek Online is in closed beta now, open beta is planned for late January, and release is February. My interest in LoTRO has resurged lately, partly because of the coming Mirkwood expansion and partly because of a good kinship I joined. I’m also continuing to enjoy Champions and EVE Online. If anything, I may have to take a break from EVE when STO comes out, depending on what the available subscription options are and how well the beta goes.

So unfortunately, Fallen Earth, its not you, its me. I hope we can stay friends.

14 Comments

I canceled my sub a while back. I loved the crafting and enjoyed the setting for a while, but eventually it just started feeling depressing. Plus, my patience wore out with the general jankiness of the client. I play FPS and do OK but found aiming in Fallen Earth to be more difficult than it felt like it should be. Maybe lag between when I hit the fire button and when a gun fires?

The setting was the major factor for me, but I agree that the client and graphics were a bit rough. The jankiness (love that word) wasn’t really a deciding factor for me though, I just don’t have enough time to play everything I want and right now I can get my crafting fix from EVE. I do intend to come back at some point if my MMO “schedule” opens up.

I’m just doing the trial for FE right now, and I think I’m feeling the same thing. I like the game, but I’m just not immersed in it. Of course, I’m only up to level 6 at the moment, but still… it’s just not pulling me in. Like you, when I play LOTRO I feel connected to my character in a way that I’m just not feeling in FE. I’m doing the same kinds of grindy BS, but I don’t mind it as much as I do in FE for some reason.

Really all of these MMO’s are basically the same. Besides some game play tweaks, it is primarily the setting that differentiates one from another. That’s why I enjoy LoTRO and Champions so much, but never clicked with AoC or FE. I think that’s why WoW stopped drawing me back in after Burning Crusade, they started to stray from their lore too much.

Heyo. I’m on the trial myself, and I find the setting a refreshing change of pace. Thing is, I can’t play the game as much as I’d like because of a technical issue with how my ISP connects to the world, which is something that neither I nor Icarus can change. Managed to play for seven hours straight and enjoyed every moment of it though.

I don’t think there’s anything more frustrating than network connection issues. Especially since you’re dealing with multiple pieces of equipment and companies. Good lick on getting that sorted out, Victor.

I liked my 15 days in FE, but WoW has me by the baby makers. 5 years of WoW and it still holds me just right. It is a game I can okay for 20 minutes and feel I relaxed. WoW is the true casual mans game

I enjoyed Fallen Earth, quirky client and all, and I hope the company does well. Unfortunately, I only have so many hours in the day, and EQ2 takes up most of my free time. I check out every MMO that comes out, but for me, if it doesn’t make me want to change MMOs entirely, there’s little point in subscribing past a month.

@Lars – Agreed. Same situation for me just substituting LoTRO and Champions for EQ2. I used to try most of the MMO’s that come out, but with all of the free-to-play ones out now, I’ve stopped doing that. I would never enjoy Runescape, regardless of gameplay, because I don’t care for the graphics. Plus there’s so many now, that I don’t think I could check them all out even if I wanted to.

Hmm…while this is almost a month after the above comments, and after a pretty good sized graphics update to the game, I am finding pretty much the opposite of what most of these comments state. Which just goes to show how different and diverse we gamers are as a community.

I find FE to be one of THE most immersive games I’ve ever played. And I’m talking for a LONG time. Since UO, SWG, EQ and on…I’ve played a lot of MMOs. For the first time in probably 10 years, I actually get excited about logging in to play. This environment (which looks amazing) is a role players DREAM. The lag issues everyone seems to have mentioned…don’t plague me at all. So I’m assuming there must have been some serious efforts on the developer side, because my machine isn’t ALL that “uber.” I have a dual core with 4g ram and an nVidia 8800 GT card, so…nothing terribly exciting there on the specs, and yet it runs smoothly with max gfx (I think I did turn off the one of the two post FX settings, I kept the one that allowed me to still use anti-aliasing, because I think it just looks best).

But any whooo….it might be time to log back in and take a look at how FE is changing. OR…you might wait until after the PvP overhaul that is forthcoming. All in all…I have to say I have never EVER been happier with a game.

I’ve continued to follow the FE news and have been very impressed with the speed and quality of updates that Icarus has been making. I’m definitely planning to go back and try it, but not for another few months at least. I’m not waiting for any specific patch, just waiting for when I need a break from my existing games.